I N T R O D U C T I O N T O V O L U M E 1 5 l i x Einstein was looking forward to lodging in her newly purchased house when he next visited Zurich,[23] and also proposed that Mileva and Eduard visit him in Berlin (Doc. 7). But by the fall of 1925, when Mileva complained about his past behavior toward her and informed him that she intended to write her memoirs for publication, Einstein reacted with vehement opposition and ridicule: “Does it not enter your mind at all that no one would care less about such scribblings if the man that they were about had not, coincidentally, accomplished something special? If someone is a nobody, there is nothing to object to, but one should be truly modest and keep one’s trap shut. This is my advice to you” (Doc. 95). Mileva replied with- out further acrimony, and Einstein’s ire was allayed (Doc. 99). In anticipation of his second stay at her house, he proposed that they vacation together with Eduard in the Swiss Alps. He was indifferent to public opinion of such an arrangement “due to complete desensitization” (Doc. 309). Their united opposition to Hans Albert’s plans to marry Frieda Knecht had evidently fostered greater amiability. Indeed, by early 1927, he was reassuring his former wife that she would gradually realize that “there is hardly a more pleasant divorced man than I” (Doc. 448). He was also pleased that Mileva and their sons were “no longer so hostile” toward his second wife Elsa Einstein (Doc. 485).We do not know whether Elsa was comfort- able with his lodging arrangements in Zurich in the summers of 1925 and 1926, but Einstein seemed to be rather oblivious of its effect on her. In a postcard to Elsa from Zurich he informed her that he was “sitting with the boys and your predecessor” (Doc. 325). During the period covered by the previous volume, Einstein’s marriage to Elsa had been sorely tested by his liaison with his secretary Betty Neumann, the first documented extramarital affair of his second marriage.[24] After his return from South America, and possibly in response to pressure from Elsa, Einstein hired a male secretary, Siegfried Jacoby.[25] A few months later, while lodging with friends in Düsseldorf, Elsa apparently reacted with jealousy to the way Einstein described his hostess. Einstein replied insensitively: “What funny business are you writing there about Mrs. Lebach? You think that I would be capable of being disloyal in such a way to a splendid man whose hospitality I was enjoying and with whom I was socializing as a friend?” (Doc. 376). The year 1926 was very difficult for Elsa, who lost both parents within six months (see Illustration 10). In August, Einstein decided to return home a few days early to provide “wife no 2” with moral support (Doc. 348). In a rare unguarded passage in which he disclosed his perception of Elsa to Hans Albert, he admitted that “although she can sometimes get on one’s nerves and is no great intellect, she excels in kindheartedness” (Doc. 474). Einstein’s letters reveal other questionable